Trends and Their Impact on Policy

A quick search on YouTube reveals a hoard of videos dealing with predicted future trends, and there have been further updates to the Shift Happens video since this one was released in 2009. However, this one is still of interest to us as it focuses on how we use media, and the rise of digital media. Four years later these may no longer have the same impact, but they continue to progress and are worth considering in terms of how organisations should handle them in their policies.

Of particular interest to those of us concerned with libraries and other information handling professions is the rapid digitisation of books by Google. As a user this is great news, as they will be providing easier access to previously rare and inaccessible documents, although I would be concerned at the cost of accessing such materials. From a library perspective there are also issues of cost and selection of what materials to be made available. Policy documents would have to outline what material should be made available and at what point this becomes unfeasible.

Another trend is the rising numbers of visitors to social networking sites such as Facebook. For libraries this demand means that they should be looking to provide greater public access to these networks (and to be involved in them themselves), which obviously comes at a cost. Another consideration for the policy! Saying that, there are also issues such as child protection. While providing access for adults is great, for younger visitors there may need to be some controls in place. How this will be managed/supervised will also need to be considered in the policy.

 This has already led to another trend, a shift in advertising for many organisations away from traditional media. As a user this will drive me to look for social networks that are free of advertising if it becomes overpowering, although generally adverts in a sidebar can be ignored. For organisations this means they need to ensure their advertising is effective without driving customers to other sites.

According to this video the average teen sent 2272 texts per month. Whether or not this remains an accurate statistic, it shows that youths are extremely communicative. For the library, or any other organisation wanting to tap into this market, the onus is on you to stay abreast of current communication trends and to devote time to establishing a presence in this environment.

Finally, we have the issue of SPAM. Pretty much since email was invented it became infested with SPAM, to the point I gave up on my Hotmail account because it was so overloaded. Filters have improved since then, but the issue remains, and organisations need to be aware that they may be impersonated by spammers for nefarious motives. Individuals need to know that their identity may be stolen without their knowledge, and that SPAM no longer is restricted to email. For schools and libraries the issue of cyber safety needs to be promoted as part of an overall technology policy.

Marketing Strategy (Don't Fall Asleep Yet!)

It sounds odd to think of marketing in a school context, although perhaps less so to those of us working in the Independent sector, where many of the parents already view themselves as clients and can have demanding expectations. I don’t work in Admin, but I’m pretty sure that my school has a marketing strategy, and would be surprised if it’s not written down somewhere (they love that stuff!), but does it include social media? I don’t think so. At least I don’t see much evidence of it.

Now, what about the library? Well, it has a blog, but I don’t think anyone knows it is there. They could definitely do with some kind of policy for their social media marketing, but what should they do exactly?

Well, Brown’s (2009, http://www.examiner.com/article/developing-an-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy) first tip is to actually write something down. What’s the point having a blog if you don’t plan how you will use it? Just getting something down on paper would provide the beginnings of a concrete plan of action.

The best place to start would be to consider the client-base. Who do we want to communicate with? In this case there are two distinct groups with different expectations. On the one hand there are the parents, and on the other the students. We need to consider their preferred methods of communication. Is a blog the right way to go, or should the library set up its own Facebook page or Twitter feed? It is quite likely that the parents have different preferences to the students in this regard. I would recommend a survey to gather data on this.

We also need to consider the categories of user, as demonstrated on the Bernoff/Schadler ladder ( see http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html). What are we aiming to achieve with our social networking? Do we expect students to be engaging as conversationalists or simply checking out what we have to offer as spectators. Obviously there will be a range of internet user types within the client-base, but we need to set ourselves some targets, even if it is simply to be viewed a certain number of times within a set period. This will then allow us to plan for improvement and growth.

Finally, there are the practicalities to consider. This is Brown’s number two tip: set how much time will be devoted to this. Life may be hectic in the library, but nobody will know unless you find the time to keep them informed, and your network will flop unless you keep it regularly updated, so we need to set a regular amount of time aside each day/week to maintain our social profile, and this should be clearly recorded in the policy.

Blog or Bleaaaurgh?

Ok, so I’ve read the A-Z of social networking for libraries (Brown, A., 2010, http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/) and I want to consider how they apply to my own school library.

B is for Blog. Hmm... well, I had to check this one. My school is a P-12, divided into a Primary campus and a High School campus. After a little hunting through the student portal I found a blog for the High School library, but as suspected there is not one for the Primary library at all. Considering that these libraries co-exist at the same school this incongruity just seems to signal that there is a lack of collaboration within the school. I think the best option would be to share one together. Then, of course they need to make it more obvious. It’s so hidden that I doubt anyone except the High School librarian has ever actually looked at it.

I is for interesting. I have to admit that at first glance I wanted to leave the library blog page because it looked so dull. It is dominated by a background of bookshelves (because it’s a library!) and the posts are all text. To be fair they have also included a series of images alongside the posts to try and liven it up a little, but they are almost exclusively photos of static displays of books from around the library. There are really few redeeming features to this blog, and it is not surprising that I could not find a single comment on any of the posts.

S is for Slideshare, and P is for podcasting. Both of these would liven up the blog no end and could involve student collaboration in their creation (simultaneously lessening the burden on the library staff!).

M is for mobile, and thanks to our school’s hardworking IT department we even have our own app. The school culture certainly embraces mobile technology, but the library is falling behind. Perhaps a Twitter feed would be the way to engage the students with what they have to offer?

Overall, my school library does not have a D for direction in its use of social media right now, but with a little Z for zeal they could still embrace the library 2.0 ethos.

4Cs at ASU

Arizona State University provides an impressive amount of information to its students through social media. On top of maintaining their website they also provide Twitter updates, Facebook posts and create YouTube videos (also posted on Vimeo). So, are these networks being used effectively? Are they achieving the 4Cs of Web 2.0: collaboration, conversation, community and content creation.

In terms of collaboration there is not a massive amount going on between the library and students/faculty staff online, but the videos push the message that the librarians are there to work with you, and articulate clearly how they are contactable and how they can help with resources, or simply providing group collaborative spaces to work in.

Conversation is certainly encouraged by the ASU library. Their Facebook page actively elicits comments from users. However, having said that, although a few users ‘like’ things on the page, written feedback is minimal. The real conversations presumably take place face to face or on IM.

This isn’t entirely surprising. Although what I think the library does best is to provide a sense of community through its regular updates and the lively information videos, ultimately they are still a part of the organisation and the majority of students are unlikely to want to contribute on their Facebook page even if they have viewed it. Possibly their most useful conversation is on Twitter, where they have over 2000 followers. While the Facebook page is used mainly to review things that have already happened, the Twitter feed keeps students up to date with current and upcoming news, as well as occasionally reminding them about library resources. I would certainly have found this useful when I was an Undergraduate. I’m sure that 90% of what was going on  passed me by unnoticed.

Overall I would give this library a big thumbs up for its use of web 2.0, but it does perhaps fall down on content creation. Yes, it creates an awful lot of excellent material of its own to keep visitors interested and coming back, and although feedback is encouraged, I did not actually see much contribution from those visitors, although obviously I am judging based on the most recent communications. Possibly, due to the constantly changing nature of web 2.0, in a month’s time I would be given a slightly different impression.

Podcasting.. overlooked and underused?

Reading Eashe's article on podcasting (2006, http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml) it occurred to me that I have been incredibly dense. I had what I thought was the great idea of getting the children to write stories, or any other creative efforts, in their spare moments and to then rcord them using Audacity. This has been successful so far, at least with some of them anyway. I intended to find the time to share these in class, but the curriculum being what it is we have nowhere near enough time.Now I know that I should have been releasing these audio files as podcasts for all to share. Parents could even sign up for an RSS feed if I look into it properly.
Beyond that, I should be getting them to post reviews and lectures of their own to share what they have learned in a real and motivating way. It is so easy to do, but it is also so easy to overlook the obvious possibilities presented by a technology until you step back and look at the broader picture. Next term then..

Microblogging... a big word for a little thing

So, micrologging eh? We had a staff PD on Twitter last year at which almost every single person conceded to never having looked at or considered joining Twitter, and I am pretty sure the numbers would be pretty much the same a year later, except that I would now have to confess to being a 'follower'. Personally I find it a massive struggle to even find the time to check my emails each day and when asked whether I received one often have to confess that it is probably buried in the list of messages that didn't look urgent enough to bother opening just yet. I don't believe I am alone in this. Realistically then, is there a place for microblogging in schools, and is there any hope of getting the teachers on board with it?
Having laid aside my initial aversion to having another layer of communication dumped on me I began to think of how this might possibly be of benefit. Firstly, it might actually lessen the size of my email inbox. Many unimportant messages that are currently emailed might be better placed as a microblog.
Secondly, we are often asked at the end of meeting to go away and look at something and feedback our thoughts later. Of course, as soon as everyone walks out of the door that is instantly forgottten. Staff might find it easier to add their thoughts to a microblog discussion, and the administration should be able to get their desired feedback.
So, what would need to happen for this to work. The crucial factor, according to Grenfell (2011, http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_microblogging/index.html) is that leadership must be engaged with the tool. Staff can feel more involved and appreciative of the organisation's purpose/direction, but they need to know that they are part of a real conversation that the management are also involved in, otherwise they might as well just chat about it in the staff room at lunch time.
I think also, that what people want now is easy access. They want to be able to access and communicate on their phones or tablets as well as their laptops. To this end it is important to research the available tools and select the most flexible.
There are also issues of discussions that you want to keep to select groups, and you need to be able to maintain your membership lists. Most tools allow this kind of thing (http://www.cio.com.au/article/328255/12_microblogging_tools_consider/) but again it is important to research how the different tools will meet your needs.
There is certainly a place for microblogging in most organisations, even schools. You might even want to let the kids in on it! The key thing is to know what you want it for and to implement it accordingly.

Exploiting Social Media

So, I have read, watched and listened to various experts telling me about how how social networking and social media are now vitally important to businesses. What is surprising is that there is anyone who still doubts this. But apparently there are many high-end business leaders for whom the idea of giving up control and communicating with the public is offputting. Then there are those who want to use these networks but see them as simply another old-style promotionl tool. It must be noted, however, that these articles are a little bit dated.

The key messages that I have imbibed from Gary Hayes and Charlene Li are that if you want to promote your product/message you need to engage the audience in a conversation. They need to feel free to give feedback and offer ideas. For that to happen you need to come across as more than a faceless institution. You need to invest time and energy into getting to know your audience and, critically, building a trusting relationship with them. This is of course no problem because we all spend insane amounts of time online nowadays. The key question for teacher librarians is where to find this time. There will be those who argue that they can't spare it, but in today's world this should and must be a priority, so that time will have to be found.